There is an increased focus on testing as consumers continue to become less tolerant of applications with errors. To successfully test business applications end-to-end, across multiple user channels, and through the distributed systems landscape and proliferation of system interfaces, organizations must have the right environment, controlled change and tailored support practices.

In part 2 of our Testing-as-a-Service (TaaS) series, we explore specific consideration factors for this innovative testing approach. This new model promises to deliver better reliability, faster time-to-market, and enhance cost savings through a unique set of bundled services, tools and deliverables. It’s also described as independent software testing services.

5 Reasons to Consider TaaS as a Testing Model

Overall, TaaS helps enterprises maximize ROI by lowering the cost of testing. It provides a virtual set up without the upfront investment in automation tools, labs, and resources while the pay-per-usage or unit-based pricing makes it more budget-friendly. Software quality assurance services are an integral part of the TaaS platform.

TaaS is most appropriate for specific testing endeavors that don’t require a considerable measure of top to bottom knowledge of the design or the system. Services that are appropriate for the TaaS model incorporate automated regression testing, performance testing, security testing, testing of major ERP (enterprise resource planning) programming, and checking/testing of cloud-based applications.

TaaS offers collaboration between development and testing with agile methodologies that add cost savings, accuracy, reliability and speed to market, something virtually all developers seek. It allows developers to acquire testing services when and as needed and calibrate scale, which helps reduce time to launch new products.

In terms of costs, the TaaS model is beneficial since enterprises pay for the actual time utilized for testing, leading to better cost controls. Compare this to a situation where an enterprise manages its own infrastructure and incurs capital expenditure and yearly depreciation costs on testing environments.

The TaaS model also offers licensing benefits since test tools, hardware, application licensing or even operating platform are managed by the cloud. Additionally, using standardized testing processing and tools can yield a 10%-20% cost reduction due to increased quality. And test automation from cloud deployments show a 5%-10% revenue enhancement.

Enterprises also witness productivity gains of 5%-10% year-over-year due to test method improvements. Leveraging a global talent pool through an extended cloud ecosystem can lead to a 10%-20% savings in personnel costs. By switching to TaaS, customers get access to a centralized test environment, with a standardized software library and test suites.

TaaS Can Be Used in the Following Scenarios:

Functional testing – In a continuous integration kind of scenario, TaaS can be a platform for creating an agile based functional testing environment.

Load testing – TaaS can be used for creating various kinds of loads to stress test applications. The scale-in/scale-out nature of cloud comes in handy for generating variable loads.

Performance and benchmark testing – For ISVs, looking to create benchmark reports for their products with their standardized test suites, TaaS can be used.

Regression testing – Applications which are in maintenance mode, can make use of TaaS to run regression tests of previously written test scripts.

Specialized testing – Testing of ERP/CRM applications, testing of DW/BI platforms which re-quires niche skill set and combination of various technologies.

TaaS is a model that allows organizations to pay for what they need, when they need it. By using a consumption-based pay model, there is less risk and investment on the part of the organization. While this solution may be right for some test efforts, keep in mind that it won’t solve all your quality needs. Collaboration between development, business and test is still recommended for functional test efforts of new development and some organizations may choose to develop automation and specialized testing skills in-house. However, TaaS solutions may be the answer to give your organization the state-of-the-art testing solution without the high price tag.

In Part 1, we provided an overview of TaaS and why it is a dynamic and powerful tool for developers, especially those who want to reduce time-to-market, as well as staff and operating costs.